When Captain Stottlemeyer suspects that a suicide is really a murder, Monk confirms his suspicions by discovering that the victim, Joanne Raphelson, was too short to have used the stool she supposedly stood on to hang herself.

While Monk is immobilized by the presence of dog poo at a crime scene, slovenly private eye Marty Eels steps in, using the dog poo (and the dog) as clues in the murder of a security guard, the robbery of a jewelry store, and the disappearance of the store owner, Harold Gumbal.